Footwear, such as shoes or boots, may be secured to the foot of a wearer in a number of ways depending upon the design of the shoe and the activity of the wearer. In some cases, such as during athletic activities, it may be desirable to tightly secure the footwear article to the foot to provide sufficient support. For example, certain shoes designed for such activities are tightly secured by lacing a shoelace through a series of eyelets, pulling the lace tight, and tying the lace. When secured to the foot of the wearer as such, such shoes generally are not readily removed without untying the lace.
In other cases, it may be more comfortable to wear shoes that are more loosely secured to the feet of the wearer. Furthermore, it may be desirable to wear shoes that can easily be put on or removed, for example, without having to tie or untie laces. Some footwear articles include elastic regions, such as gussets, that are capable of stretching and may increase comfort and/or facilitate removing and putting on the article. However such articles generally are not tightly secured to the foot of a wearer in all situations. For example, forces that arise during certain activities, such as those caused by the repeated flexing of the foot, may cause the elastic region to stretch. The stretching of the elastic region reduces the securement of the article on the foot and the support provided by the article. Such articles, therefore, may not be well-suited for certain activities.
Accordingly, in some cases the wearer may want footwear articles to be tightly secured to te his feet while, in other cases, comfort and the ease of removing or putting on the shoe may be more important to the wearer.